Gardenhire got it 8 years too late..

Ron Gardenhire just won the AL Manager of the year..... Read here

If you're a fan of Gardy, I would ask you to please leave this blog because what I'm about to say will most likely get you heated....


First of all, Terry Francona deserves this award. I know that voting takes place before the postseason (which I would like that to change to after the World Series)..... What Terry Francona did this year at Boston was very impressive, heck! I would say Joe Madden might deserve it too!

But Francona did a lot more with a lot less. Talk about injuries, look at Boston..

Anyways, back to my Gardenhire rant......

Don't get me wrong, I think Gardy deserved this award in 2002, but that doesn't mean anything today. A lot of people will say Gardy should win this award because he was left with an injury depleted line up. That argument is rubbish.

Twins GM Bill Smith brought plenty of relief help this year with Nathan gone. Matt Capps, Randy Flores, and Brian Fuentes were brought to cover the "Nathan Slot"... and if you ask me, I would rather of those three guys then "I will load the bases before I get a save" Joe Nathan..
I personally think our bullpen is better with those three.

We paid Justin Morneau 15 million to play 80+ games.. Awesome.

My argument on this situation is obvious, because of the injury our outfield players got more playing time which led to Jim Thome saving the Twins muiltply times. The injury made more opportunities for Twins players to prove themselves, which I think they did. I think Delmon Young proved himself this year that he can hit, he proved it due to the fact he got more playing time thanks to Justin Morneau's headache. The Twins showed us that they didn't need Justin Morneau, which is why I think we should trade him..

Also, let's not forget that the Twins are a very talented team. There was no reason for them not to win the division this year. With the additions of Hardy and Hudson, our line up had the potential for long playoff run.

Gardenhire is too friendly with the players and the players aren't afraid of him. There has to be distance between players and coaches and there is no such thing with the Twins. Which would explain to me on why they haven't had any postseason success under the Gardenhire era.

Also, let us remember how WEAK the AL Central was this year.
You think Gardenhire would have won this award if we were in the AL EAST?

Rob Neyer@ ESPN also agrees with me - click here

Time to let him go with this award,

Stay Fresh

Noel